And from among His Signs are the night and the
day, and the sun and the moon. Prostrate
not to the sun nor to the moon, but prostrate
to Allah Who created them, if you (really) worship Him. (Qur'an
41:37)

1. Introduction

One of the favourite arguments of the Christian missionaries over many years
had been that Allah of the Qur'an was in fact a pagan Arab "Moon-god"
from pre-Islamic times. The seeds of this argument were sown by the work of
the Danish scholar Ditlef Nielsen, who divided the Semitic deities into a triad
of Father-Moon, Mother-Sun and Son-Venus.[1] His ideas
(esp., triadic hypothesis) were used uncritically by later scholars who came
to excavate many sites in the Near East and consequently assigned astral significance
to the deities that they had found. Since 1991 Ditlef Nielsen's views were given
a new and unexpected twist by the Christian polemicist Robert Morey. In a series
of pamphlets, books and radio programs, he claimed that "Allah" of
the Qur'an was nothing but the pagan Arab "Moon-god". To support his
views, he presented evidences from the Near East which can be seen in "Appendix
C: The Moon God and Archeology" from his book The
Islamic Invasion: Confronting The World's Fastest-Growing Religion and it was subsequently reprinted with minor changes as a booklet called The Moon-God Allah In The Archeology Of The Middle East.[2]
It can justifiably be said that this book lies at the heart of missionary propaganda
against Islam today. The popularity of Morey's ideas was given a new breath
of life by another Christian polemicist Jack T. Chick, who drew a fictionalised
racially stereotyped story entitled
"Allah Had No Son".

Morey's ideas have gained widespread popularity among amenable Christians,
and, more often than not, Muslims find themselves challenged to refute the 'archaeological'
evidence presented by Morey. Surprisingly, it has also been suggested
by some Christians that Morey has conducted "groundbreaking research on
the pre-Islamic origins of Islam." In this article, we would like to examine
the two most prominent evidences postulated by Morey, namely the archaeological
site in Hazor, Palestine and the Arabian "Moon temple" at Hureidha
in Hadhramaut, Yemen, along with the diagrams presented in Appendix C of his
book The Islamic Invasion: Confronting The World's Fastest-Growing
Religion (and booklet The Moon-God Allah In The Archeology Of The Middle East) all of which he uses to claim that Allah of the Qur'an was a
pagan "Moon-god".[3]

2. The Statue At Hazor: "Allah" Of
The Muslims?

One of the most prominent evidences of Morey for showing that Allah was a "Moon
god" comes from Hazor.[4] Morey says:

In the 1950's a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated
at Hazor in Palestine. Two idols of the moon god were found. Each was a stature
of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved on his chest (see
Diagram 1). The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols
of the Moon-god (see Diagram 2 and 3). Several smaller statues were also found
which were identified by their inscriptions as the "daughters" of
the Moon-god.[5]

Hazor was a large Canaanite and Israelite city in Upper Galilee. It was identified
by J. L. Porter in 1875 and this view was later endorsed by J. Garstang who
conducted trials at the site in 1928. In the years 1955-58, the James A. de
Rothschild Expedition, under the direction of Yigael Yadin, conducted excavations
on the site.[6] Among other things, they found a shrine
furnished with an offering table, a lion orthostat, the statue in question,
and stelae, all made from regional black basalt [Figure 1(a)].[7]
The central stela shows a pair of hands raised below a crescent plus circle
symbol, usually considered to depict the crescent moon and the full moon, respectively
[Figure 1(b)]. The raised hands may be understood as a gesture of supplication,
although Yadin proposed that this posture should be associated with a goddess
known from much later Punic iconography as Tanit, who was the consort of the
god Sin.[8] The other stelae are plain. The whole shrine
has been interpreted as belonging to a Moon-god cult.

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: (a) A close-up of the stelae
temple, showing all the stelae, the statue and the offering table. (b) The central
stele with the relief.[9]

Figure 2: (Right) Front view of the statue,
showing the lunar deity emblem on its chest. (Left) Rear view of the statue.[10]

The principal object of interest is the statue [Figure 2] which Morey has labelled
as a "Moon-god".[11] The statue, about 40
cm in height, depicts a man with an inverted crescent suspended from his necklace
and holding a cup-like object in his right hand, while the other hand rests
on his knees.[12] The question now is what exactly
this statue represents which Morey labelled as "Moon-god"?

According to Yadin, this statue can represent a deity, a king, or a priest.
He says that all the "three alternatives are possible", but he "believes
it is a statue of the deity itself".[13] However,
it appears that later he had modified his views. Writing in the Encyclopedia
Of Archaeological Excavations In The Holy Land, Yadin describes the same
statue as

Basalt statue of deity
or king from the stelae temple...[14]

Subsequent scholarship has described the same statue either in uncertain or
neutral terms. For example, Treasures Of The Holy Land:
Ancient Art From The Israel Museum describes the statue of the seated
figure as:

It depicts a man, possibly
a priest, seated on a cubelike stool. He is beardless with a shaven
head; his skirt ends below his knees in an accentuated hen; his feet are bare.
He holds a cup in his right hand, while his left hand, clenched into a fist,
rests on his left knee. An inverted crescent is suspended from his necklace.[15]

Amnon Ben-Tor in The New Encyclopedia Of Archaeological
Excavations In The Holy Land describes the statue as a "seated male
figure" without saying what it represented.[16]
In a later publication, however, he described the same object as "a small
basalt statue of a decapitated deity (or king)
whose head was found nearby."[17] Amihai Mazar,
in a similar fashion, described the statue as "a sitting male figure (possibly
depicting a god or a priest)."[18]

Clearly, there is a difference of opinion among the scholars concerning this
statue. It is not too hard to understand why this is the case. It seems illogical
that a god should hold offering vessels in his hand; the god is usually the
one who receives offerings. Therefore, the statue should, in all probability,
depict a priest or a worshipper of a god, who himself is in a way considered
present, either invisibly or in the upright stela of the sanctuary. Furthermore,
the statue of a man holding an offering was seated at the left hand side of the
shrine [Figure 1(a)]. This can hardly be a proper position for a revered god,
whose position is arranged in the centre of the sanctuary.

Morey claimed that "two idols of the Moon-god were found" and that
each of them were "sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved on
his chest". Apparently, the "accompanying inscriptions made it clear
that these were idols of the Moon-god". Regardless of the difference of
opinions concerning the nature of statue found at Hazor no scholar
has ever identified this statue with a "Moon-god", nor do they say
that "accompanying inscriptions" suggest that the statue was that
of a "Moon-god". Furthermore, Morey claimed that "two idols
of the Moon-god" were found at Hazor. Contrary to his claims of the discovery
of "two idols of the Moon-god", Yadin confirms the discovery of two
contemporary temples, dedicated to two different deities - Moon-god and Weather
god at Hazor in Area C and Area H, respectively.[19]
The temple of the Weather god was represented by a circle-and-rays emblem and
the bull which together indicate that it must be Hadad the storm god,[20]
whatever his actual name was at Hazor. A likely source of Morey's unsubstantiated
claims could be due to the discovery of two beheaded statues, one with an inverted
crescent suspended from his necklace that we had discussed earlier and the other
representing a king;[21] they look similar to each
other. Equally ridiculous is another of Morey's claims that several smaller
statues were also found "which were identified by their inscriptions as
the "daughters" of the Moon-god." No such statues or inscriptions
accompanying them were found in Hazor. Unfortunately for Morey he has been caught
red-handed fabricating evidence. Put simply, he is making up stories here.

After Morey's debacle at Hazor, let us now examine his next piece of evidence
 that of a "Moon temple" at Hureidha in Southern Arabia and
how it proves that Allah of the Qur'an was a pagan "Moon-god" of Arabia.

3. The "Moon" Deities From Southern
Arabia?

Morey's claim that the moon worship was dominant in Arabia, especially in the south,
can be summed up with a quote from his book:

During the nineteenth century, Amaud, Halevy and Glaser
went to Southern Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and Qatabanian
inscriptions which were subsequently translated. In the 1940's, the archeologists
G. Caton Thompson and Carleton S. Coon made some amazing discoveries in Arabia.
During the 1950's, Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower and others
excavated sites at Qataban, Timna, and Marib (the ancient capital of Sheba)...

The archeological evidence
demonstrates that the dominant religion of Arabia was the cult of the Moon-god...

In 1944, G. Caton Thompson revealed in her book, The
Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha, that she had uncovered a temple of
the Moon-god in southern Arabia. The symbols of the crescent moon and no less
than twenty-one inscriptions with the name Sin were found in this temple.
An idol which may be the Moon-god himself was also discovered. This was later
confirmed by other well-known archeologists.[22]

Let us now look into the so-called "amazing discoveries" made in Southern
Arabia which led Morey to claim that the archaeological evidence "demonstrates"
that the dominant religion in Arabia was the cult of a Moon-god.

To begin with, the South-Arabian pantheon is not properly known. Its astral
foundation is indisputable. As in most contemporary Semitic cults, the southern
Arabs worshipped stars and planets, chief among whom were the Sun, Moon and
Athtar, the Venus.[23] The relation to the divine
was deeply rooted in public and private life. The concept of State was expressed
through the "national god, sovereign, people". Each of the South Arabian
kingdoms had its own national god, who was the patron of the principal temple
in the capital. In Sheba, it was Ilmaqah (also called Ilumquh
or Ilmuqah or Almaqah or Almouqah), in the temple of the
federation of the Sabaean tribes in Marib. In Hadramaut (or Hadhramaut), Syn
(or Sayin) was the national god and his temple was located in the capital
Shabwa. In Qataban, the national god was called Amm ("paternal
uncle"), who was the patron of the principal temple in the capital Timna.
Amm was seen as a protector of the Qatabanite dynasty, and it was
under his authority that the ruler carried out various projects of the state.
In Main, the national god was Wadd ("love") and it originated
most probably from Northern Arabia. He was sometimes invoked as Wadd-Abb
("Wadd is father").[24]

In order to understand the religion and culture of Southern Arabia, it must
be borne in mind that the monuments and inscriptions already show a highly developed
civilization, whose earlier and more primitive phases we know nothing about.
This civilization had links with the Mediterranean region and Mesopotamian areas
- which is evidenced by the development and evolutionary trends of its architecture
and numismatics. This exchange certainly influenced the religious phenomena
of the culture and it is primarily here we should look to illuminate the theological
outlook of the Sheba region; certainly not among the nomadic bedouin of the
centre and north of the Arabian peninsula. It was the failure to take into account these crucial principles that led Ditlef
Nielsen into his extravagant hypothesis that all ancient Arabian religion was
a primitive religion of nomads, whose objects of worship were exclusively a
triad of the Father-Moon, Mother-Sun and the Son-Venus star envisaged as their
child.[25] Not only was this an over-simplified view
based on an unproven hypothesis, it is also quite absurd to think that over
a millennium-long period during which paganism is known to have flourished,
there was not substantial shifts of thinking about the deities. Not surprisingly,
Nielsen's triadic hypothesis was handed a devastating refutation by many scholars (a detailed discussion is available below),
albeit some of them still retained his arbitrary assignment of astral significance
to the deities.[26] While discussing the pantheon of
South Arabian gods and its reduction to a triad by Nielsen, Jacques Ryckmans
says:

Many mention of gods are pure appellations, which do
not allow defining the nature, or even the sex, of the deities names. This
explains why the ancient claim of D. Nielsen to reduce the whole pantheon
to a basic triad Moon-father, Sun-mother (sun is feminine in Arabia), and
Venus-son, has continued to exert negative
influence, in spite of its having been widely contested: it remained
tempting to explain an unidentified feminine epithet as relating to the Sun-goddess,
etc.[27]

The crude logic of the proponents of Nielsen's hypothesis is that since Shams
("Sun") is feminine in epigraphic South Arabian, the other principal
deity must be masculine and this was equated with the moon. The relationship
between Father-Moon and Mother-Sun produced Son-Venus star, their child. How
did this erroneous interpretation affect the data from Southern Arabia where
some "amazing discoveries" were made? We will examine this is the
next few sections.

MOON
GOD IN MARIB (SHEBA)?

Nielsen's views also influenced the archaeologists who excavated the Mahram
Bilqis (also known as the Temple Awwam) near Marib.[28]Mahram Bilqis, an oval-shaped temple, was dedicated to Ilmaqah,
the chief god of Sheba.[29] This temple was excavated
by the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM) in 1951-52[30]
and again more recently in 1998.[31] According to the
archaeologist Frank Albright, the Temple Awwam (i.e., Mahram Bilqis)
was "dedicated to the moon god Ilumquh, as the large inscription of the
temple itself tells us".[32] Albright cited the
inscription MaMB 12 (= Ja 557) to support his claim that Temple Awwam was "dedicated
to the moon god Ilumquh".[33] However, the inscription
Ja 557 in its entirety reads:

Abkarib, son of Nabatkarib, of [the family] Zaltān,
servant of Yadail Bayyin and of Sumhualay Yanūf and of Yataamar
Watar and of Yakrubmalik Darih and of Sumuhualay Yanūf,
has dedicated to Ilumquh all his children and his slaves and has built and
completed the mass of the bastion [by which] he has completed and filled up
the enclosing wall of Awwām from the line of this inscription and in
addition, all its masonry of hewn stones and its woodwork and the two towers
Yazil and Dara and their [the two towers] recesses, to the top, and
he has raised up the possessions of his ancestors, the descendents of Zaltān.
By Attar and by Ilumquh and by Dāt Himyān and
by Dāt Badān. And Abkarib has made known, in submission
to Ilumquh and to the king of Mārib, Š[...[34]

Although the dedication to Ilmaqah is mentioned, nowhere
does the inscription say that Ilmaqah is called the Moon-god!
In fact, none of the inscriptions at the Mahram Bilqis mention Ilmaqah
as the Moon-god. Moreover, the collective mentioning of the pantheon of gods
by formulae such as "by Athtar", "by Ilumquh", "by
Shams", "by Hawbas", "by Dhāt Himyān", "by
Dhāt Badān", "by Dhāt Badānum",
"by Dhāt Zahrān", etc. occur quite frequently in
the inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis.[35] As
Ryckmans had pointed out, many of these gods are pure appellations, with no
defining nature and sex. Following the logic of Nielsen of reducing the Arab
pantheon of gods to a triad, Albright and others have considered Ilmaqah
as the Moon-god, although no evidence of such a triad exists. Scholars like
Alexander Sima have drawn attention to the fact that very little is known about
the Sabaean deities. He says that while Shams was most certainly a solar
goddess, the lunar nature of Ilmaqah is "speculative" and lacks
"any epigraphic evidence".[36]

The nature of the Sabaean chief deity Ilmaqah was studied in considerable
detail by J. Pirenne[37] and G. Garbini[38]
in the 1970s. They have shown that the motifs associated with Ilmaqah
such as the bull's head, the vine, and also the lion's skin on a human statue
are solar and dionysiac attributes. Therefore, Ilmaqah was a Sun-god,
rather than a Moon-god. Concerning Ilmaqah, J. Ryckmans in The
Anchor Bible Dictionary says:

Along with the main god Attar, each of the
major kingdoms venerated its own national god. In Saba this was the god named
Almaqah (or Ilmuqah), whose principal temple was near Marib, the capital of
Saba, a federal shrine of the Sabaean tribes. According to the widely contested
old theory of the Danish scholar D. Nielsen, who reduced the whole South Arabian
pantheon to a primitive triad: father Moon, mother Sun (sun is feminine in
Arabic) and son Venus, Almaqah was until recently
considered a moon god, but Garbini and Pirenne have shown that the bull's
head and the vine motif associated with him are solar and dionysiac attributes.
He was therefore a sun god, the male counterpart of the sun goddess Šams,
who was also venerated in Saba, but as a tutelary goddess of the royal
dynasty.[39]

Ilmaqah was also discussed by A. F. L. Beeston. Writing in the Encyclopaedia
Of Islam, he says:

For the period down to the early 4th century A.D., few
would now agree with the excessive reductionism of D. Nielsen, who in the
1920s held that all the many deities in the pagan pantheon were nothing more
than varying manifestations of an astral triad of sun, moon and Venus-star;
yet it is certainly the case that three deities tend to receive more frequent
mention than the rest....

But just as the Greek local patron deities such as Athene
in Athens, Artemis in Ephesus, etc., figure more prominently than the remoter
and universal Zeus, so in South Arabia the most commonly invoked deity was
a national one, who incorporated the sense of national identity. For the Sabaeans
this was 'lmkh (with an occasional variant spelling 'lmkhw).
A probable analysis of this name is as a compound of the old Semitic word
'l "god" and a derivative of the root khw meaning
something like "fertility" (cf. Arabic kahā "flourish");
the h is certainly a root letter, and not, as some mediaeval writers
seem to have imagined, a tā marbūta, which in South Arabian
is always spelt with t...

Many European scholars
still refer to this deity in a simplistic way as "the moon god",
a notion stemming from the "triadic" hypothesis mentioned above;
yet Garbini has produced cogent arguments to show that the attributes of 'lmkh
are rather those of a warrior-deity like Greek Herakles or a vegetation god
like Dionysus.[40]

Elsewhere, Beeston writes:

In the case of Ilmqh, Amm and Wadd, there is nothing
to indicate lunar qualities. Garbini has presented
a devastating critique of such a view in relation to Ilmqh, for whom he claims
(much more plausibly) the attributes of a warrior-god and of a Dionysiac vegetation
deity, with solar rather than lunar associations. In the case of Wadd,
the presence of an altar to him on Apollo's island of Delos points rather
to solar than lunar associations. For Amm we have nothing to guide us
except his epithets, the interpretation of which is bound to be highly speculative.[41]

While discussing various gods of southern Arabia, and Ilmaqah (or Almaqah)
in particular, Jean-François Breton says:

Almaqah was the god of agriculture and irrigation, probably
for the most part of the artificial irrigation which was the basis of successful
farming in the oasis of Ma'rib. The god's animal attributes were the bull
and, in later times, the vine. Almaqah was
a masculine sun god; the divinity Shams (Sun), who was invoked as protector
of the Sabaean dynasty, was his feminine counterpart.[42]

Such views concerning Ilmaqah can also be seen in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica which says:

Next to Athtar, who was worshiped throughout
South Arabia, each kingdom had its own national god, of whom the nation called
itself the "progeny" (wld). In Saba' the national god was
Almaqah (or Ilmuqah), a protector of artificial irrigation,
lord of the temple of the Sabaean federation of tribes, near the capital Ma'rib.
Until recently Almaqah was considered
to be a moon god, under the influence of a now generally rejected conception
of a South Arabian pantheon consisting of an exclusive triad: Father Moon,
Mother Sun (the word "sun" is feminine in Arabic), and Son Venus.
Recent studies underline that the symbols of the bull's head and the vine
motif that are associated with him are solar and Dionysiac attributes and
are more consistent with a sun god, a male
consort of the sun goddess.[43]

While discussing the relationship between the Chaldaeans and the Sabianism,
the Encyclopedia Of Astrology says:

From this arose Sabianism, the worship of the host of
heaven: Sun, Moon and Stars. It originated with the Arabian kingdom of Saba
(Sheba), when came the Queen of Sheba. The
chief object of their worship was the Sun, Belus. To him was erected
the tower of Belus, and the image of Belus.[44]

It is clear from this discussion that Ilmaqah was the patron deity of
the people of Sheba due to the fact they invoke him frequently in their inscriptions,
and almost always before other deities if at all featured. From the inscriptions
themselves it is not clear what sort of deity Ilmaqah was. He has many
epithets, but none which link him explicitly with the sun or moon. The simple
linkages between deities and natural phenomena as put forth by Nielsen have
been rejected of late in explaining the nature and function of deities. Instead,
the study of the motifs show that Ilmaqah had attributes that are more
consistent with a Sun-god.[45]

MOON
GOD IN HUREIDHA (HADRAMAUT)?

Let us now move to Hadramaut. During excavations in Southern Arabia, G. Caton
Thompson found a temple of the Hadramitic patron deity Sin in Hureidha.[46]
She claimed that Sin was a Moon-god.[47] Following
her footsteps, Morey says:

In 1944, G. Caton Thompson revealed in her book, The
Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha, that she had uncovered a temple of
the Moon-god in southern Arabia (see Map 3). The symbols of the crescent moon
and no less than twenty-one inscriptions with the name Sin were found in this
temple (see Diagram 5). An idol which may be the Moon-god himself was also
discovered (see Diagram 6). This was later confirmed by other well-known archeologists.[48]

There are several serious problems associated with G. Caton Thompson's claim
that Sin was a Moon-god. Firstly, the name of the Hadramitic patron deity
according to the epigraphic evidence is
and it is transcribed as SYN.[49] The case for
SYN being a Moon-god rests on identifying him with the Akkadian Su-en,
later Sin: the well-known north Semitic moon deity. The presence of three consonants in the name of the Hadramitic deity SYN poses problems
for one wishing to equate it with the Babylonian deity Sin which
is written by two signs to be pronounced EN-ZU (or ZU-EN). This problem was recognized by Albright over 50 years ago. Although he alleges that SYN was borrowed from an unknown Akkadian form of Sumerian Zuen, he did not know how and was therefore at loss to explain how this process would have occurred.

The original uncontracted Accadian form of Sumerian Zuen is not known, but may have been *Zuyen > *Ziyen, from which the Hadrami name of the moon god, SYN, was borrowed at a very early date - how is unknown. It should be noted that the Sumerian z is regularly reflected by Accadian s in borrowed words, and that the Hadrami word cannot be transcribed Sîn, as customarily done, but had three consonants.[50]

Clearly, if the spelling difference between the Babylonian Sin and the Hadramitic SYN was "remarkably close", as the missionaries have claimed,
why is it that prominent scholars such as W. F. Albright deny the transcription of SYN to Sin and resorted to speculation? It is clear that equating SYN with Babylonian Sin is fraught with problems, and as Beeston had correctly noted:

Among the federal deities, the case for Syn being a moon god rests on identifying him with Akkadian Su-en, later Sin; an equation which, attractive though it may seem, is not without problems. At all events, even if this was so with the Hadramite deity, it is unlikely that it tells the whole story.[51]

Furthermore, he points out the geographical difficulty in accepting the equation of Sayīn being the equivalent of the Mesopotamian Sin:

On the east coast of Arabia, where Mesopotamian influence would be expected to be greater than in Hadramawt, we find mention of a deity with a similar name but spelt with a different initial consonant.[52]

Secondly, Pliny reported that in
Shabwa, they worshipped the god Sabin.[53]Sabin was pronounced as Savin according to the Latin phonetic rules of the
1st century CE.[54] As mentioned earlier, the Hadramitic patron deity is transcribed as SYN and it is a three consonant word. As for the nature of the vowels between the consonants, Pliny gives a clue that in Shabwa, people worshipped the god Sabin. If we remove the consonants in Pliny's description of the Hadramitic deity and insert the consonantal structure from epigraphic South Arabian, we are left with the nearest and perhaps most accurate pronunciation of SYN as Sayīn. Christian Robin proposed the reading
of Sayīn for SYN which is now widely accepted among scholars.[55] Commenting on the Hadramitic patron god SYN, Alexander Sima says:

The Hadramitic pantheon is the least known in southern
Arabia owing to the fact that the number of known Hadramitic inscriptions
is - compared to the three other states/languages - still very limited. At
the top of the Hadramitic pantheon stood the deity whose name was constantly
written SYN. This name was previously
thought to be vocalized as Sīn and thus connected with the well-known
north Semitic moon deity, Sīn. However, the South Arabian orthography
and the testimony of the Natural History of Pliny the Younger points
to a vocalization, Sayīn, so the form Sīn should be abandoned.
The Hadramitic sources give no hint of his nature and even his
connection with the moon is merely speculative.[56]

In other words, the Hadramitic patron deity Sayīn is different from the north Semitic deity Sin. Consequently, the former's connection with the moon is speculative.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3: (a) Couple of Hadramitic coins
mentioning the patron deity SYN (obverse) and showing an eagle with open wings
(Reverse).[57] (b) The coin 1 is sketched to make the
depiction more lucid.[58]

However, the numismatic evidence from Hadramaut suggests something more interesting (See the appendix On The “Moon-God” Coins Of Ancient Southern Arabia for a detailed discussion).
In some coins from Hadramaut, Sayīn appears as an eagle [Figure
3(a)],[59] a solar animal, and this clearly points
to him as being the Sun-god. John Walker, who first published the Hadramitic
coins, was perplexed by the presence of an eagle and the mention of SYN,
which he assumed to be the deity Sin. Although he was aware that the
monuments in North Arabia and Syria regarded the eagle as a solar deity, he
insisted on giving a lunar association to the depiction of eagle on Hadramitic
coins, which is clearly in contrary to the evidence.[60]
Modern scholars regard Sayīn as a solar deity. For example, Jean-François
Breton says:

The national god of Hadramawt was known as
Sayîn, a Sun god. As in Qataban, the
inhabitants of Hadramawt referred to themselves as the "children of Sayîn";
the state itself was described through the formula using two divine names
which also referred to a double tribe: "Sayîn and Hawl and [king]
Yada'il and Hadramawt." We have only meagre information from classical
authors about Sayîn and his cult. Theophrastus reported that frankincense
was collected in the temple of the Sun, which he erroneously placed in Saba.[61]

Similarly Jacques Ryckmans points out:

In Hadramawt, the national god Syn, in the temple
in the capital Shabwah, has generally been assimilated to the Moon-god. But
remarks by Theophrastes and Pliny, and some coins on which he appears as an
eagle (a solar animal!) point him out
as a Sun-god, a male counterpart of Shams.[62]

Such views are also seen in The Anchor Bible Dictionary[63]
and the Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of World Religions.
The latter says:

In Hadramawt the national god Syn
was also a sun god.[64]

Given that Morey claims to have conducted "groundbreaking research on
the pre-Islamic origins of Islam", one finds oneself most taken aback by
the complete absence of contemporary scholarship in his book. Morey's haphazard
consideration of the sources would justifiably prompt one to fear that he was
not even aware of the relevant critical literature in the first place! All this
leaves the apologist's credibility in serious dispute.

Let us now look at his arguments concerning the "Moon temple" in Hureidha.
Morey says that "symbols of the crescent moon and no less than twenty-one
inscriptions with the name Sin were found in this temple (see Diagram
5)." The presence of crescent moon does not automatically suggest that
Sayīn was a Moon-god. Müller had photographed an incense altar
from Southern Arabia containing both crescent moon and the sun. This object
was dedicated to the Sun-goddess.[65] Clearly the presence
of a crescent moon does not warrant drawing hasty conclusions. Moreover, Morey
pointed to the diagram 5 containing the inscriptions to support his viewpoint.
This diagram is reproduced with a translation in Figure 4.

(a)

A3.26

Bin'il, son of Ammdamar, the Yarmite, Ka-

bîr of Ramay, renewed the former façade (of the temple)
of Madâbum, in the

third (year of the) Adidum, and with the participation
of (the tribe) Ramay.

A3.11

... son of Yuhan-

... de]dicated to Hawl.

A3.14

Šamît?Halsay?

....

Dû-Hahay'il.

Šahrum.
Nawfatân.
Ayb(?).

A3.16

Ha[lakyati de[dicated ...

A3.16a

... son of T...

A3.12

Yadham, son of[... and ... have

dedicated to Sîn.

(b)

Figure 4: (a) Inscriptions at Temple in
Hureidha dedicated to the patron deity Sayīn or SYN. (b). Translation of
the inscriptions.[66]

Out of six inscriptions, only one mentions the dedication of the temple at
Hureidha to Sayīn. In fact, none of
the dedicatory inscriptions (or otherwise) say that Sayīn was a
Moon-god.[67] Morey goes on to claim with a
picture (i.e., Diagram 6 in his book and see Figure 5 below) that G. Caton Thompson
discovered an "idol which may be the Moon-god himself". This uncertainty
is mysteriously transformed to certainty by Morey in the figure caption which
reads "Arabian Moon Temple - An idol of the Moon-god".[68]
There is a clear discrepancy here.

Figure 5: Limestone statue of unknown significance.[69]

Moreover, what does G. Caton Thompson say about this image? Her description
of this statue is as follows:

White limestone brick with impurities. Total height 20.5
cm., width 8.4 cm., depth 4 cm. Head and neck 5.5 cm. high. The brick belongs
to a class of smooth chiselled slabs abundant in the Temple masonry... The
back of the image, however, though rough to stand hidden against a wall, is
not humped for actual engagement. The human features, without ears, are vaguely
indicated on a bullet head; and hair, or a hanging head-dress, not infrequent
on Yemen statuettes, falls to the shoulders.

Neither of these stones has any near parallel in
published material from south Arabia. They are, in their respective ways,
more primitive than anything yet found there. The significance of association
of the true baetyl - the aniconic representation of the god - with the semi-anthromorphic
form of image, more probably representative of the votary, in a similar ritual
setting, is perhaps impossible to disentangle without additional evidence
from comparable groups in situ.[70]

In the layman terms, the exact nature of this limestone statue is not known
although Thompson suggests that "it may be a cult image."[71]
Morey's claim that Figure 5 represents the "idol of the Moon-god" is now
completely sunk. What now becomes unbelievable is what comes next. Morey says
that the limestone statue of the non-existing Moon-god at Hureidha "was
later confirmed by other well-known archeologists". The well-known archaeologists
that are listed by Morey are:

Three references are listed but only one is cited with a page number. Page
number 78ff. in Archaeological Discoveries In Southern
Arabia leads to the article "Irrigation
In Ancient Qatabān (Beihān)" by Richard LeBaron Bowen,
Jr.[73] On p. 78, Bowen says:

We are indebted to Misses F. Stark, E. W. Gardner,
and G. Caton Thompson for the first systematic study of ancient irrigation
in South Arabia. Freya Stark visited Hureidha in 1935 and reported that a
very big Sabaean ruin-field existed in Wadi Amd, a tributary of Wadi
Hadhramaut (Plate 34). On the basis of this, Miss Caton Thompson chose Hureidha
as a site for excavation in 1937. The "Sabaean ruin-field" turned
out to be merely the rubble ruins of an irrigation system, which Miss E. W.
Gardner surveyed (Plate 90).[74]

In the footnote of the page Bowen cites G. Caton Thompson's The
Tombs And Moon Temple Of Hureidha (Hadhramaut) where the ruins of the
irrigation system are discussed. This does not sound like well-known archaeologists
"confirming" the limestone statue as "Moon-god".

Morey's deception gets grander with the next reference he cited, which is Ray
Cleveland's An Ancient South Arabian Necropolis.
The full title of this book reads An Ancient South Arabian
Necropolis: Objects From The Second Campaign (1951) In The Timna Cemetery.[75]
The last part of the title of the book which Morey conveniently left-out is
more informative. Timna is in Qataban whereas Hureidha is in Hadramaut.
Cleveland's book exclusively deals with Timna's cemetery in Qataban and
as to how he had confirmed that the limestone statue at Hureidha in Hadramaut
was a "Moon-god" is a complete mystery. The
fact is that there is no such "confirmation" by Cleveland in his book.
No wonder Morey did not even cite a page number in his book where the reader
can verify his claims.

Morey's deception peaks with the last reference on the list, i.e., Nelson Gleuck's
Deities And Dolphins. The full title of this
book is Deities And Dolphins: The Story Of The Nabataeans.[76]
Again the last part of the title gives the whole game away and no wonder Morey
did not mention it at all. In this book Glueck describes the Nabataean hilltop
temple of Khirbet Tannur.[77] Khirbet Tannur is about
fifty miles north of Petra, on the peak of Jebel Tannur in modern day Jordan.
Not surprisingly, this book has nothing to do with
the temple in Hureidha in Southern Arabia and it does not even mention it.
Consequently, there is no "confirmation" by Glueck that the statue
at Hureidha was a "Moon-god".

This completely refutes the "archaeological evidence" presented by
Morey for his claim that "Allah" of the Qur'an was in fact a pagan
Arab "Moon-god" of pre-Islamic times. To complete the study of the
pantheon in Southern Arabia in pre-Islamic times, let us look at the nature
of Amm, the patron of the principal temple in the capital Timna
in Qataban and Wadd, the national god of Main.

MOON
GODS IN QATABAN AND MAIN?

The astral nature of the patron deities of Qataban and Main is uncertain.
Ryckmans says in The Anchor Bible Dictionary:

In Main, the national god Wadd, "love"
originated from North Arabia... is frequently associated with the symbol of
the moon crescent and a small disc (the planet Venus?), so
that he probably was a moon god... In Qataban, the national god was
Amm, "paternal uncle," a well known semitic divine name. There
is no reason to consider him moon god.[78]

Elsewhere he states:

In Main the national god Wadd, "love"
originated from North Arabia. The identification
with the Moon-god is not established... In Qatabān, the national
god was called Amm, "paternal uncle". His
identity with the Moon-god is not established.[79]

Ryckmans' views are also shared by Breton. He says that:

In the kingdom of Main, the national god was known
as Wadd, or "love"; this god probably originated in central or northern
Arabia and has been attested in several kingdoms in South Arabia. He
is a lunar god whose name is sometimes accompanied by the epithet moon...

In Qatabān, the national god was called Amm
or "paternal uncle" in reference to his role in the pantheon; but
this designation fails to reveal his full identity.[80]

However, Beeston disagrees with the view that Wadd can be considered
as a Moon-god. He opines that Wadd is most likely a solar deity. As for
Amm he says that there is nothing certain about his astral character.
Beeston says:

In the case of Wadd, the presence of an altar to him
on Apollo's island of Delos points rather to
solar than lunar associations. For Amm we have nothing to guide
us except his epithets, the interpretation of which is bound
to be highly speculative...[81]

In summary, the scholars are divided over the astral nature of both Wadd,
the patron deity of Main, and Amm, the patron of the principal
temple in the capital Timna. However, there is complete agreement concerning
Amm, the patron deity of Qataban, that his exact nature is unknown.

Given the fact that the modern scholarship categorically rejects or cast doubts on the lunar association of the ancient South Arabian deities, the missionaries now turn to a very familiar pattern of name calling using emotionally-laden terms such as "liberal" scholarship, "secular" scholarship and in the current case "revisionist" scholarship, to uncritically dismiss the arguments of modern scholarship. The "charge" is that we have relied on the

revisionist scholars such as Ryckmans, Breton and Beeston against traditionalist scholars who rely on Dr. Ditlef Nielsen's pioneering scholarship from the 1920s.

We are not told why modern scholars such as Jacques Ryckmans, Jean-François Breton and A. F. L. Beeston can be considered "revisionists" and what makes the scholarship of Ditlef Nielsen "traditional". Regrettably, much of their argument is based on this charge rather than actually presenting historical evidences to prove their point of lunar associations of South Arabian deities. Commenting on Nielsen's theory of astral triads, the missionaries say that:

About the only way to decisively refute the triadic theory would be if a theogonic myth was unearthed that explained the South Arabian pantheons differently, or the theory proved less than useful in explaining the data, yet there is a serious debate about only two of the gods.

The tacit assumption here, of course, is that Nielsen already had the evidence to show the proof for the existence of astral triads in the South Arabian pantheons and that any alternate account, as espoused by "revisionists", must be supported by evidence. This argument is quite strange and is a weak attempt to reverse the burden of proof; it rather shows the ignorance of the missionaries concerning the thesis of Nielsen. Nielsen's thesis can be summarized like this.[82] The old Arabian religion was the mother of the other Semitic religions and it was composed of the astral triad of Sun-Moon-Venus. This triad corresponded to Father-god, Mother-goddess and divine Son, respectively. Nomads worshipped the star Venus, but when they became agriculturalists they revered the sun and paid less attention to the star and the moon. The astral nature of old Arabia contrasted with that of Babylonia. Arabia, with its nomad night-journeys, chooses the moon, while the peasant life of Babylonia choose the sun. Next, a sacred moon leads sacred phases with corresponding ritual seasons. Hence a lunar reckoning of time developed in Arabia and a solar reckoning in Babylonia. After the sacred times and seasons being provisionally settled, next comes the turn of places and symbols. Anything curved or associated with a curved shaped was consigned to lunar symbolism, as it imitates the shape of a crescent moon. Thus bulls, bullheads and ibexes showing the curved horns became the symbols of the Moon-god. Among the southern Semites, sun is feminine and Venus is masculine, as is moon and this formed the trinity of Father-Moon, Mother-Sun and Son-Venus. This is the gist of Nielsen's thesis on the origin of the Semitic religion.

To begin with, Nielsen's very claim that the starting point of the religion of Semitic nomads was marked by the astral triad of Sun-Moon-Venus, the moon being more important for the nomads and the sun more important for settled tribes, was startling to many scholars. He painted almost the entire religion of the Middle East with the same brush of astral triads. One can see that there is nothing "traditional" about such a claim, as the knowledge about the South Arabian pantheon and, in general, the Semitic religion was still in its infancy during Nielsen's time. Giving a chronological view of Arabian epigraphy and connecting it to the study of the religion of Semitic people, Henninger says:

Towards the end of the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth, South-Arabic and proto-Arabic epigraphy (entirely absent from the work of Wellhausen) was taken more and more into consideration. Although not particularly relevant to the study of the nomadic peoples, D. Nielsen from 1904 onwards made use of epigraphic evidence as a basis for reconstructing an astral religion common to proto-Semitic peoples and thus also attributable to Arab Bedouin. This much too speculative theory met with strong opposition....

Credit must be given to G. Ryckmans for producing an important survey in his monograph, Les Religions arabes préIslamiques, first published in 1947. He made extensive use of the expanding corpus of epigraphic material while carefully avoiding Nielsen's dubious theories....[83]

It is assumed, both in the treatment of Semitic and Sumerian deities, that the earliest gods were celestial - sun, moon, sky, and astral gods - an assumption, which, though followed by some recent writers such as Ditlef Nielsen, is contrary to the conclusions of sound anthropology, and was discarded for the Semitic field by W. Robertson Smith nearly half a century ago.[85]

J. Gray discussed the studies of Maria Höfner on ancient south Arabian religion. He pointed out that the increased availability of epigraphic material has resulted in correction of theories of Ditlef Nielsen as well as their refutation.

Aided by philology and by the analysis of the epigraphic symbols of the gods,
she succeeds in showing that the pantheon was relatively simple and restricted,
and was dominated by the first three gods above-mentioned, which
were worshipped under a great number of epithets, functional and local. She is able also to correct certain former theories, such as that of Ditlef
Nielson, who argued for a family relationship between Almaqa, Šams and Attar as moon, sun and Venus in the relationship of father, mother and son
(Handbuch der altarabischen Altertumskunde, I, 1927). The author not only
explodes this theory of a trinity, but demonstrates that the gods, though
believed to be manifest in the moon, sun and Venus star, were agrarian
deities, Attar being principally influential in irrigation, Almaqa in seasonal
rain and Šams playing a relatively minor role. Attar was besides a war-god
and protector.[86]

It is not surprising that W. Montgomery Watt pointed out:

The divergent theories of Dietlef Nielsen are not generally accepted. These recount what is known about a large number of gods and goddesses and about the ceremonies connected with their worship. As our knowledge is fragmentary and, apart from inscriptions, comes from Islamic sources, there is ample scope for conjecture. These matters are not dealt with here in any detail as it is generally agreed that the archaic pagan religion was comparatively uninfluential in Muhammad's time.[87]

In fact over sixty years ago William F. Albright issued a general warning regarding Nielsen's study of the South Arabian pantheon. Although Albright noted Neilsen's contribution to the study of South Arabian pantheons, he concluded that he had "gone much too far in trying to carry it through Near-Eastern polytheism in general."[88] Albright also pointed out Nielsen's strong tendency to over-schematize the material and hence the latter's work should be used with great caution.

The subject of divine triads in the ancient Near East, particularly Arabia and Syria, has been discussed repeatedly by D. Nielsen, especially in his books Die altarabische Mondreligion (1904), Der dreieinige Gott in religionshistorischer Beleuchtung (1922) and in his paper "Die altsemitische Muttergöttin", Zeits. Deutsch. Morg. Ges., 1938, pp. 526-551. Owing to Nielsen's strong tendency to over-schematize and to certain onesidedness in dealing with the material, his work has been only moderately successful and must be used with great caution.[89]

In other words, the reduction of the pantheon of South Arabian gods to a triad by Nielsen was not based on actual evidence but mere speculation which made his theories dubious which consequently invited incisive rejoinders from 1924 onwards, which the missionaries did not take the opportunity to check.[90] Moreover, it has been pointed out by Beeston that in order to understand the religion and culture of ancient Southern Arabia, it must be borne in mind that the monuments and inscriptions already show a highly developed civilization, whose earlier and more primitive phases we know nothing about. This civilization had links with the Mediterranean region and Mesopotamian areas - which is evidenced by the development and evolutionary trends of its architecture and numismatics. This exchange certainly influenced the religious phenomena of the culture and it is primarily here we should look to illuminate the theological outlook of the Southern Arabian region; certainly not among the nomadic bedouin of the centre and north of the Arabian peninsula. Clearly, Nielsen failed to take into account these crucial principles and it led him to construct an extravagant hypothesis that all ancient Arabian religion was a primitive religion of nomads, whose objects of worship were exclusively a triad of the Father-Moon, Mother-Sun and the Son-Venus star envisaged as their child.[91] The "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" of Nielsen turned out to be neither of the two; it was exaggerated, speculative, dubious and consequently discarded. Even in spite of the compelling body of evidence to the contrary, the missionaries claim:

It is well known that the moon, sun and Venus were worshipped everywhere in the ancient world, and it was most natural for pagans to worship them as a triad of closely related gods.

If this is indeed true, according to Ditlef Nielsen's "pioneering scholarship" Yahweh must be a part of some astral outfit. According to the "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" of Nielsen, Yahweh was actually a Moon-god and a part of the triad of Yahweh – Ba‘al – ‘Aštart. He says:

The old Arabic iconless cult is also found among the Hebrews; as is the old Arabic triad of gods. In the triad Yahweh – Ba‘al – ‘Aštart, which was revered by the people during the era of the kings, Ba‘al is according to usual northern Semitic custom, the male Sun, and ‘Aštart the female Venus; but the original old Arabic form of the family of gods, where Venus is male and the Sun is the female mother-god, shows up in parallel; e.g., in the dream of Joseph (Genesis 39:9-10), in Yahweh's wedding with the Sun and in the frequent female sex of the Šemeš (Sun).

Yahweh, the main god of the triad, is in its original nature a distinctly old Arabic god figure. The name itself probably also occurs in Lihyanite inscriptions.

In a triad where the other two gods are the nature gods, Sun and Venus, one would also expect to find the Moon, and indeed there is evidence that the Hebrew Yahweh originally was a lunar god. Of course, one cannot say that the Old Testament god who rules over nature is simply a lunar god, but many rudiments, in particular in the cult, show that it grew out of the same natural basis as the other folk gods and nature gods of the old Arabic culture.

Just as the horse was the holy animal for the old Arabs (cf. page 227) and Hebrews (2 Kings 23:11), so was the bull the animal of the lunar good (cf. page 214). It is for this reason that Yahweh was depicted and worshipped in the shape of a bull, and its altar carries »horns« (Exodus 32:4ff, 1 Kings 12:28, Hosea 8:5).

The night is always the sacred time and the time when Yahweh reveals himself. The festivals were originally moon festivals and are still tied to the lunar phases today. New moon and full moon were solemnly celebrated The waxing and waning moonlight is also reflected in the sacrifice by fire. For example, during the autumn festival (Numbers 29:12-32), 13 young bulls are sacrificed on the first day of the full moon, 12 on the second day, 11 on the third day etc., down to 7 animals on the 7th day. This week begins with the full moon and ends with the last quarter. One should note that 7 bulls are sacrificed just on the 7th day of the week, so that this scale really requires a sacrifice of 14 bulls on full moon at the 14th day of the lunar month, and that the number of bulls diminishes in parallel with the moon waning.

Already 22 years ago, the author has shown evidence that with the old Arabs and Hebrews the Sabbath or weekly holiday was tied to the lunar cycle by bi-monthly leap days during new moon. The loss of this leap mechanism can apparently be explained with the fight against the lunar cult, just as Muhammad abolished solar times for religious festivals and solar leap days in the calendar for similar motives and to finally eradicate the solar cult.

The terms used on the appearance of Yahweh are frequently the same astronomical terms as used for the appearance of the [new] moon, moon-rise, and moon-set; the whole religious symbolism is also a tell-tale sign of lunar origins.[92]

A supporting evidence of the lunar origins of the Hebraic religion also comes from the work of Lloyd Bailey. Bailey noted the similarities between Israelite deity Ēl Šadday and Amorite Bel Šadê and their lunar origins.[93] Similar conclusions were also reached by E. L. Abel who says:

... the definite allusions to the moon cult in the names of the patriarchs and their families, and the affinities between the Ugaritic El and the patriarchal god, all suggests that El Šadday, the god of patriarchs was a lunar deity and in turn that the patriarchs were followers of the lunar cult.[94]

Mention must be made of the fact that Julius Lewy suggested a number of years ago on entirely different grounds that Ēl Šadday was the Moon-god Sin.[95] Not surprisingly, Andrew Key also noted that there existed traces of worship of the Moon-god Sin among the early Israelites.[96] A few words need to be said about the bovine symbolism of Yahweh in the Old Testament, a topic which has been widely discussed in the scholarly literature, especially one of the epithets of Yahweh, the "אביר (ʾabyr) of Jacob" (Genesis 49:24).[97] This is normally translated as the "mighty God of Jacob" or the "mighty One of Jacob". However, literally and basically the word ʾabyr in Northwest Semitic languages such as Ugaritic means "bull". The cognate in Ugaritic, a language written in cuneiform and closely related to Hebrew, is ibr[98] and is paralleled with two words, tr[99] and rum,[100] that mean "bull"
and "buffalo", respectively.[101] The root meaning may have been "mighty" or "powerful", however, as we have observed, it is also the name of an animal.[102] The horned bull has implications of strength (hence the translation "mighty One"), warrior skills, fertility and youth. For this reason, the "ʾabyr of Jacob" is also translated as "the Bull of Jacob".[103] That "the Bull of Jacob" refers to Yahweh in post-Mosaic times as well is clear from passages such as Isaiah 49:26, 60:16, and Psalm 132:2, where the ʾabyr of Jacob is paralleled with Yahweh. Commenting on the bovine symbolism of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, Moshe Weinfeld says:

That the divine symbol of bull was associated with Bethel may be learnt from Genesis 49:24, where the term ʾabyr Jacob, 'the bull of Jacob', applied to the God of Israel, is coupled with ʾbn Israel, 'the stone / rock of Israel', in other words the massebah, of Bethel. For the bull / ram imagery in connection with God of Israel cf. Num 23:22, 24:8.

One should however be aware of the fact that applying a symbol of a bull to God of Israel does not necessarily mean that the people believed that the bull represented YHWH himself. According to some scholars... the calf was considered the pedestal upon which YHWH was enthroned and thus was in parallel in function to the "cherubim" in Jerusalem. Bull pedestals of the god Baal-Hadad are also attested in the Hittite and Syrian iconography...[104]

Along with several passages in Exodus such as 32:4, 32:8 and 32:31 in which the calf is expressly identified with the God of Israel, other passages also highlight the close symbolism of Yahweh and the calf.[105] According to the Old Testament, when Jeroboam I, the first King after the split of the united kingdom of Israel and Judah, wanted to dissuade the people of the newly established northern Israelite kingdom from going to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh there, he established two new religious centres, Dan and Bethel, and had two golden calves crafted and installed there. It would not have been possible to use the calves in these circumstances if the Israelites were not already familiar with the concept of calf worship and its acceptance as one of the symbolic animals of the God of Israel. As Aaron Rothkoff has pointed out in the Encyclopaedia Judaica,

In any case Jeroboam's initiative must have had some basis in an old tradition; otherwise he could not have succeeded in his enterprise.[106]

The bull symbolism of Yahweh coupled with the long historical tradition of worship of the Moon-god among the Israelites is clearly in line with the "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" of Ditlef Nielsen who had earlier established using similar evidences that Yahweh originally was a Moon-god.

It goes without saying that the missionaries' argument contains serious flaws and contradictions. The "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" of Ditlef Nielsen has established Yahweh's "moonotheism", i.e., his credentials as a Moon-god by taking into account Yahweh's voracious appetite for bulls, his love for their horns, his bovine symbolism among other things. For the missionaries this should sound like a very familiar argument which they have used to allege the lunar associations of South Arabian deities as well as Allah. On the other hand, the missionaries have considered any deviation from Nielsen's "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" as "revisionism", thus establishing that they have been worshipping the Moon-god cult of Yahweh; a devastating consequence of using "critical evaluations" of a "third-party" without proper understanding and verification. After this brief digression, let us now discuss the "amazing discoveries" that were made in Southern Arabia and what they tell us about ilāh.

WHAT
DO THE “AMAZING DISCOVERIES” TELL US ABOUT ILĀH?

Morey had mentioned that some "amazing discoveries" were made in
Southern Arabia by archaeologists such as G. Caton Thompson, Carleton S. Coon,
Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower et al. and this has resulted
in the "demonstration" that the predominant religion in Arabia was
Moon-god worship. We have conclusively demonstrated that this is indeed false.
Many of these archaeologists used Nielsen's arbitrary assignment of astral significance
to the deities. However, modern studies have proven that the predominant religion
was solar worship in the kingdoms of Sheba and Hadramaut. The exact nature of
the astral significance of the patron deities in the kingdoms of Qataban and Main
is uncertain. Thus Segall's statement that "according to most scholars,
South Arabia's stellar religion had always been dominated by the Moon-god in
various variations" is incorrect and represents an example of outdated
scholarship.[107] Morey also plundered Coon to support
his claim that Allah was a pagan Arab "Moon-god" of pre-Islamic times.
According to Morey:

As Coon pointed out, "The god Il or Ilah was originally
a phase of the Moon God."

The Moon-god was called al-ilah, i.e. the god, which
was shortened to Allah in pre-Islamic times. The pagan Arabs even used Allah
in the names they gave to their children. For example, both Muhammad's father
and uncle had Allah as part of their names. The fact that they were given
such names by their pagan parents proves that Allah was the title for the
Moon-god even in Muhammad's day.[108]

Morey then adds:

Prof. Coon goes on to say, "Similarly, under Mohammed's
tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah,
the Supreme Being."[109]

There are several problems with Morey's quotes. Firstly, Morey clipped the
sentence out of a larger paragraph. He deceptively left out a crucial part,
and separated the other two parts as though they were two unrelated quotes.
The actual quote from Coon reads:

The god Il or Ilah
was originally a phase of the Moon God, but early in Arabian history the name
became a general term for god, and it was this name that the Hebrews used
prominently in their personal names, such as Emanu-el, Israel, etc.,
rather than the Ba'al of the northern semites proper, which was the Sun. Similarly,
under Mohammed's tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah became Al-Ilah,
The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being.[110]

Coon's claim that "Il or Ilah was originally a phase of
the Moon God" comes from the claim that the patron deities of ancient South
Arabia such as Wadd, Amm, Sayīn and Ilmaqah
were all Moon-gods.[111] A claim similar to that of
Coon which says Allah was "originally applied to the moon" can also
be seen in Everyman's Dictionary Of Non-Classical Mythology.
Concerning "Allah" it says:

Allah. Islamic name for God. Is derived from Semitic
El, and originally applied to the moon; he seems to have been preceded by
Ilmaqah, the moon god.[112]

This takes us to the second point. The dictionaries of Qatabanian and Sabaean
dialects compiled from the "amazing discoveries" of the inscriptions
in Southern Arabia do not support Coon's view that il or ilāh
was "originally a phase of the Moon god" nor gives credence to the
allegation that Allah was "originally applied to the moon". As to
what exactly il and ilāh mean in epigraphic South Arabian
(i.e., Qatabanian and Sabaean inscriptions) as well as how they are related
to their cognates in Arabic and Hebrew is depicted in Figure 6.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 6: Discussion on 'IL and 'ILH in
(a, b) Qatabanian[113] and (c) Sabaic dictionaries.[114]
Note that the lexicons also mention that ilh in the Qatabanian and Sabaean dialects
is similar to Arabic ilāh and Hebrew elōah.

Similar views are also expressed by D. B. Macdonald in the Encyclopaedia
of Islam. He says that ilāh simply means deity. Concerning
ilāh he says:

... for the Christians
and (so far the poetry ascribed to them is authentic) the monotheists, al-ilāh
evidently means God; for the poets it means merely "the one who
is worshipped", so al-ilāh indicates: "the god already
mentioned"... By frequency of usage, al-ilāh was contracted
to Allāh, frequently attested in pre-Islamic poetry (where his name cannot
in every case have been substituted for another), and then became a proper
name (ism alam)...

ilāh
is certainly identical with elōah and represents an expanded form
of an element -l- (il, el) common to the semitic
languages.[115]

From the discussion, it is clear that in Qatabanian and Sabaean il or
ilāh was neither "originally a phase of the Moon god"
nor "originally applied to the moon". It simply means god/God. Furthermore,
ilh in the Qatabanian and Sabaean dialects is similar to the Arabic ilāh
and the Hebrew elōah. Moreover, the allegations that il or
ilāh was "originally a phase of the Moon god" or that
Allah was "originally applied to the moon" stems from the view of
the earlier archaeologists and scholars that Moon-worship was predominant in
Southern Arabia. This claim has been shown as erroneous and unsupported by any
evidence. In fact, the evidence points to a predominance of Sun-worship in Southern
Arabia.

Thirdly, Morey's approach left out of Coon's statement what would disprove
his most important argument against the God of Islam. Morey is adept at repeating
that Allah is not the God of the Bible but the Moon-god of pre-Islamic Arabia.
It would have been inconvenient for him to repeat what Coon had said that "it
was this name that the Hebrews used prominently in their personal names, such
as Emanu-el, Isra-el, etc." Going by Morey's "logic" the Hebrew
name Emanu-el which Morey considers a name for Jesus would now mean that "Moon-god is with us".

Fourthly, al-ilāh is not the same as il or ilāh.
The words are spelt very differently. Coon says that "Ilah became Al-Ilah"
in Muhammad's teachings. Obviously, then, al-ilāh was not the Moon-god
according to Coon but only according to Morey.

Now that the case for finding the Moon-god in the "amazing discoveries"
of Southern Arabia has come to a naught, let us now turn our attention to Northern
Arabia.

4. A Wild Goose Chase In Northern Arabia

For his evidence of a Moon-god cult in Northern Arabia, Morey starts of by
saying:

Thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern
Arabia have also been collected. Reliefs and votive bowls used in worship
of the "daughters of Allah" have also been discovered. The three
daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat are sometimes depicted together with
Allah the Moon-god represented by a crescent moon above them.[116]

For Southern Arabia Morey told us about alleged Moon-god worship everywhere
and he furnished us with names of discoverers, dates of discoveries, names of
discovery sites, and lots of pictures to boot. Why is it that when it comes
to Northern Arabia he offered not a shred of evidence? The only authorities
he quotes to support his statement that the "three daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza
and Manat are sometimes depicted together with Allah the Moon-god represented
by a crescent moon above them", are Isaac Rabinowitz,[117]
Edward Lipinski[118] and H. J. W. Drijvers.[119]

To begin with, none of these scholars even mention that Allah was a Moon-god
in their works. Rabinowitz's two papers in the Journal
Of Near Eastern Studies deal with mention of Han-'Ilat on vessels from
Egypt. The pagan goddess Atirat, who was widely worshipped in the Middle
East, was discussed by Lipinski. There is no mention
of al-Uzza and Manat in his paper, let alone they being the daughters
of "Moon-god" Allah. As for the work of Drijvers, he discusses extensively
the iconography of Allat in Palmyra. If there was something significant in these
writings, Morey would have made direct quotation. The
fact is that none of these works mention Allah was a Moon-god. Once again,
Morey shows himself adept at fabricating evidence.

5. Unquoting The Quotes

The standard of a work can be determined by how accurately the source material
is cited. Morey's book The Islamic Invasion: Confronting
The World's Fastest-Growing Religion can be rated as one of the top-class
howlers when it comes to accuracy.[120] Let us take
a look at some of the samples.

Morey claims that "Newman concludes his study of the early Christian-Muslim
debates by stating":

"Islam proved itself to be...a
separate and antagonistic religion which had sprung up from idolatry".[121]

The actual quote on the other hand reads:

The first three centuries of the Christian-Muslim dialogue
to a great degree molded the form of the relationship which was to prevail
between the two faiths afterward. During this period, Islam proved itself
to be less a wayward sect of the "Hagarenes,"
from a Christian perspective, and more a separate and antagonistic
religion which had sprung up from idolatry.[122]

It was not Islam that proved itself to be a separate and antagonistic religion
which had sprung up from idolatry; rather it was all from a Christian perspective!
Morey conveniently left out the passage highlighted above to show that Islam
proved itself to be a separate and antagonistic religion which had sprung up
from idolatry.

Right after mentioning Newman's quote, Morey goes on to say that Caesar Farah
also concluded:

"There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea
that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews." The Arabs
worshipped the Moon-god as a supreme deity. But this was not biblical monotheism.[123]

Farah, on the other hand, actually states:

Allah, the paramount deity
of pagan Arabia, was the target of worship in varying degrees of intensity
from the southernmost tip of Arabia to the Mediterranean. To the Babylonians
he was "Il" (god); to the Canaanites, and later the Israelites,
he was "El'; the South Arabians worshipped him as "Ilah,"
and the Bedouins as "al-Ilah" (the deity). With Muhammad
he becomes Allah, God of the Worlds, of all believers, the one and
only who admits no associates or consorts in the worship of Him. Judaic and
Christian concepts of God abetted the transformation of Allah from a pagan
deity to the God of all monotheists. There is no reason, therefore,
to accept the idea that "Allah" passed to the Muslims from Christians
and Jews.[124]

The problem with Morey's quote is that he so separated the last sentence from
the rest of the paragraph, that he made it say something different from what
it used to say in the context of that paragraph. That passage was saying that
the God who was called Ilah in South Arabia was called El by the
Israelites. This fact would have ruined Morey's entire Moon-god theory, so Morey
conveniently concealed it. Moreover, Farah never said that the Arab worshipped
the Moon-god as a supreme deity!

Let us now move to Chapter IV ("The Cult Of
The Moon God") of Morey's book.

Arthur Jeffery's Islam: Muhammad And His Religion
is quoted to introduce the name Allah. Morey says:

The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was well
known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat,
are found not infrequently among the theophoric names in inscriptions from
North Africa.[125]

The actual quotation is:

The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was
well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat,
are found not infrequently among the theophoric names in inscriptions from
North Arabia.[126]

Morey transforms "North Arabia" to "North Africa", thus
increasing the geographical distribution of the name Allah and Allat among the
theophoric inscriptions by several fold  conveniently for Morey, a not
so insignificant misquotation.

As for Alfred Guillaume, Morey says that he has pointed out that "the
moon god was called by various names, one of which was Allah".[127]
Guillaume, on the other hand, writes:

The oldest name for God used in the Semitic word consists
of but two letters, the consonant 'l' preceded by a smooth breathing, which
was pronounced as 'Il' in ancient Babylonia, 'El' in ancient Israel. The relation
of this name, which in Babylonia and Assyria became a generic term simply
meaning 'god', to the Arabian Ilāh familiar to us in the form
Allāh, which is compounded of al, the definite article, and Ilāh
by eliding the vowel 'i', is not clear. Some scholars trace the name of the
South Arabian Ilāh, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter
of antiquarian interest. In Arabia Allāh
was known from Jewish and Christian sources as the one god, and there can
be no doubt whatever that he was known to pagan Arabs of Mecca as the supreme
being. Were this not so, the Qur'an would have been unintelligible
to the Meccans; moreover it is clear from Nabataean and other inscriptions
that Allāh means 'the god'.[128]

It is clear that Guillaume did not say that "the moon-god was called by
various names, one of which was Allah". He only said that some scholars
"trace the name of the South Arabian Ilāh, a title of the Moon
god..." We have already seen from the Qatabanian and Sabaean lexicons that
Ilāh simply means "god" without any astral connotations.

Many howlers can also be seen in Morey's A Reply To Shabbir Ally's Attack On Dr. Robert Morey: An Analysis Of Shabbir Ally's False Accusation And Unscholarly Research. In this booklet Morey accuses Shabbir Ally of "unscholarly research". How does Morey fare when it comes to "scholarly research"? Let us examine his scholarly credentials by taking just three examples from his booklet. Quoting the book Studies On Islam, Morey says:

"According to D. Nielsen, the starting point of the religion of the Semitic nomads was marked by the astral triad, Sun-Moon-Venus, the moon being more important for the nomads and the sun more important for the settled tribes." Studies on Islam, trans., ed. Merlin L. Swartz, (New York, Oxford, 1981), page 7.[129]

This quote comes from Joseph Henninger's article "Pre-Islamic Bedouin Religion" in this book. What is interesting to note is that Ditlef Nielsen's views on the origins of the Semitic religion are no longer considered valid by modern scholars. As we have noted earlier, Nielsen's triadic hypothesis was handed a devastating refutation by many scholars. Not surprisingly, Henninger describes Neilsen's theories as "dubious" and "too speculative" which "met with strong opposition".[130] In other words, the reference which Morey used to bolster his case for Allah being a Moon-god refutes the same contention!

While discussing the ibex and its religious significance in ancient South Arabian religion, Morey mentioned Wendell Phillips' Qataban And Sheba: Exploring Ancient Kingdoms On The Biblical Spice Routes Of Arabia which allegedly says:

"The ibex (wa'al) still inhabits South Arabia and in Sabean times represented the moon god. Dr. Albert Jamme believes it was of religious significance to the ancient Sabeans that the curved ibex horn held sideways resembled the first quarter of the moon." Qataban and Sheba: Exploring the Ancient Kingdoms on the Biblical Spice Routes of Arabia, Wendell Phillips, (New York, 1955), page 64.[131]

This quote is nowhere to be seen on that page! Checking the index of the book reveals that the only mention of ibex occurs in p. 69 where the text says:

The ibex was an animal of special veneration among the ancient peoples of Arabia, and frequently adorned sacrificial tables of offerings to the gods, such as the one we found.[132]

Another quote from this book, according to Morey, says:

"The first pre-Islamic inscription discovered in Dhofar Province, Oman, this bronze plaque, deciphered by Dr. Albert Jamme, dates from about the second century A.D. and gives the name of the Hadramaut moon god Sin and the name Sumhuram, a long-lost city... The moon was the chief deity of all the early South Arabian kingdoms - particularly fitting in that region where the soft light of the moon brought the rest and cool winds of night as a relief from the blinding sun and scorching heat of day.

In contrast to most of the old religions with which we are familiar, the moon god is male, while the sun god is his consort, a female. The third god of importance is their child, the male morning star, which we know as the planet Venus...

The spice route riches brought them a standard of luxurious living inconceivable to the poverty-stricken South Arabian Bedouins of today. Like nearly all Semitic peoples they worshipped the moon, the sun, and the morning star. The chief god, the moon, was a male deity symbolized by the bull, and we found many carved bulls' heads, with drains for the blood of sacrificed animals." Qataban and Sheba: Exploring the Ancient Kingdoms on the Biblical Spice Routes of Arabia, ibid. page 227.[133]

Not surprisingly, the above quote is not be found on page 227 either! A closer examination of the material reveals that this lengthy quote in Morey's booklet comes from different pages, viz., pages 306, 69 and 64.

Dr. Jamme had deciphered a newly uncovered bronze inscription mentioning the name of the Hadhramaut moon god Sin and giving for the first time the name SMHRM (Sumhuram), a long-lost city.[134]

The moon was the chief deity of all the early South Arabian kingdoms - particularly fitting in that region where the soft light of the moon brought the rest and cool winds of the night as a relief from the blinding sun and scorching heat of day. In contrast to most of the old religions with which we are familiar, the Moon God is male, while the Sun God is his consort, a female. The third god of importance is their child, the male morning star, which we know as the planet Venus.[135]

The spice route riches brought them a standard of luxurious living inconceivable to the poverty-stricken South Arabian Bedouins of today. Like nearly all the Semitic peoples, they worshipped the moon, the sun, and the morning star. The chief god, the moon, was a male deity symbolized by the bull, and we found many carved bull's heads, with drains for the blood of sacrificed animals.[136]

It turns out that Morey mixed up three different quotes from three different pages and ultimately
transformed them into a single
quote allegedly originating from p. 227 of the book Qataban And Sheba: Exploring Ancient Kingdoms On The Biblical Spice Routes Of Arabia. As for who is involved in "unscholarly research" is quite clear.

These examples from Morey's books are enough to shred whatever remains of his scholarly credentials. A diligent researcher would be able to find more such misquotes in his books.

6. From Missionary Injudiciousness To Enlightenment?

In spite of no evidence in either the past or present scholarship that Allah was a "Moon-god" of pre-Islamic Arabia, it has not discouraged other Christian missionaries to loose hope; they have adopted what they term as a "take a scholarly "wait and see" approach". They had over 10 years to look into the evidences presented by Morey that allegedly claimed that Allah was a "Moon-god" and yet no missionary ever came with a serious refutation from the point of view of archaeology. In the last 10 years, however, the missionary websites promoting Morey's "Moon-god" hypothesis have increased dramatically. In order to minimize the impact of this hypothesis, the missionaries have claimed that the issue of Allah being a Moon-god does not even figure out as a "major argument" in the Christian community. They say:

It is certainly true that Muslims have been particularly annoyed about this theory, but it is definitely wrong that this was a favorite or major argument in the Christian community, let alone among Christian missionaries. Among the perhaps 200 Christian books published about Islam in the last 15 years, I would be hard pressed to name more than five authors who seriously promote that theory.

Perhaps the missionaries have forgotten that the knowledge-base in our world these days also exists in the form of zeros and ones. A quick search on Google for "Allah Moon God" throws up more than a million websites! A quick sampling would reveal that the majority of these websites belong to Christians. It can be confirmed that the huge popularity of Allah being a Moon-god has alarmed those missionaries who are involved with and are experienced in field work with Muslims, and compelled them to write an article addressing this issue. Rick Brown in an article entitled "Who Is "Allah"?" in the International Journal Of Frontier Missions - a well-known missiology journal - which appeared in the summer of 2006, addressed the issue of various claims concerning Allah by his fellow Christian brethren. He starts by saying in the beginning of his article:

Much of the anger expressed in the West has taken the form of demonizing the Islamic religion, to the extent of accusing Muslims of worshipping a demon. A key element of this attack has been the claim of some that the name Allah refers to a demon or at least a pagan deity, notably the so-called "moon god." Such claims have even been made by scholars who are reputable in their own fields but who are poorly acquainted with the Arabic language and Middle-Eastern history. The Kingdom of God, however, is never advanced by being untruthful, so this matter bears further investigation.[137]

Contrary to the claim of the Christian missionaries, Brown admits that a "key element" of the Christian attack on Muslims is referring to Allah by calling him a "Moon god". He also categorically states that this claim is patently "untruthful". Not surprisingly, given the importance of the claim of Allah being a Moon-god, this is the first issue which he deals with in his article citing scholarly sources. He says:

Moon God?

Those who claim that Allah is a pagan deity, most notably the moon god, often base their claims on the fact that a symbol of the crescent moon adorns the tops of many mosques and is widely used as a symbol of Islam. It is in fact true that before the coming of Islam many "gods" and idols were worshipped in the Middle East, but the name of the moon god was Sîn, not Allah, and he was not particularly popular in Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. The most prominent idol in Mecca was a god called Hubal, and there is no proof that he was a moon god. It is sometimes claimed that there is a temple to the moon god at Hazor in Palestine. This is based on a representation there of a supplicant wearing a crescent-like pendant. It is not clear, however, that the pendant symbolizes a moon god, and in any case this is not an Arab religious site but an ancient Canaanite site, which was destroyed by Joshua in about 1250 BC. There is also an ancient temple in the ruins of the kingdom of Sheba (Saba), in Yemen, and it includes inscriptions to the kingdom's patron god Almaqah. It has been claimed that Almaqah was a moon god, but there is no solid evidence for this, and scholars now think Almaqah was a sun god. If the ancient Arabs worshipped hundreds of idols, then no doubt the moon god Sîn was included, for even the Hebrews were prone to worship the sun and the moon and the stars, but there is no clear evidence that moon-worship was prominent among the Arabs in any way or that the crescent was used as the symbol of a moon god, and Allah was certainly not the moon god's name.[138]

Furthermore, he adds:

Suppose for the sake of argument that the ancient Arabs did worship the moon. This would have no bearing on the name Allah, for there is no inscription that identifies Allah as a moon god or as a pagan deity. This contrasts with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English words for God, all of which descend from words that were commonly used by pagans in reference
to pagan deities. So the name Allah is freer of pagan roots than are these other names![139]

In fact, Brown was not the first person in missionary circles to refute the claim that Allah was a Moon-god. Imad Shehadeh from Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary refuted Morey's claim of Allah originally being the Moon-god of Arabia using textual, lexical, historical and theological evidences. Like Brown, Shehadeh confirms the popularity of Morey's thesis. He says:

A recent popular theory asserts that Allah was originally the moon god worshiped in Arabia before and during Muhammad's time. According to this theory, when Muhammad came on the scene, the Ka‘bah contained 360 idols, among which was the moon god called 'ilah, or "a god." Then it is said that Muhammad declared this moon god to be the chief god and called it 'al 'ilah by adding the article 'al to 'ilah, thus yielding the meaning "the god."... Morey, who is foremost in popularizing this theory, cites many references from encyclopedias, dictionaries, works of philosophy and history, as well as various writers. However, though there is little doubt about the existence of moon god worshiped in Arabia before and during Muhammad's time, there are several weaknesses with identifying this moon god with Allah. In fact Muhammad initially adopted the name "Allah" as it was used by the Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians of his day in referring to the true God of the Bible. This assertion is based on four factors: textual, lexical, historical, and theological.[140]

It is also worthwhile pointing out that a series of articles titled "Do Christians And Muslims Worship The Same God?" appeared in the journal Christian Century recently. The question of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God was dealt with by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars. They all reached the same conclusion that both Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God albeit they differ on the nature of God.[141] As for those special class of missionaries who are firm believers in the "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" of Ditlef Nielsen, they have consigned themselves to Yahweh's Moon-god worship. In their fervour to hypothesise the lunar characteristics of Allah, the missionaries have engaged in self-imposed paganism – a worrying development.

7. Conclusions

Morey claims to have conducted groundbreaking research on the pre-Islamic origins
of Islam. However, on the basis of his poorly edited popular level book, there
is a substantial lack of evidence to support this assertion. In fact, there
is a considerable amount of evidence to conclude quite the opposite.

Morey claimed that "Allah" of the Qur'an was in fact a pagan Arab
"Moon-god" of pre-Islamic times. To support his viewpoint, he presented
elaborate evidences from an archaeological site in Hazor, Palestine, and the
Arabian "Moon temple" at Hureidha in Hadhramaut, Yemen. An examination
of these two evidences confirms that none of them support the view that Allah
was the "Moon-god" of pre-Islamic times. The evidence from Hazor suggests
that the interpretation of the statue of a man with an inverted crescent suspended
from his necklace and holding a cup-like object in his right hand, which Morey
labelled as "Moon-god", is disputed among the scholars. This statue
could be of a deity, king or priest. None of the scholars, however, say that
the statue represents a "Moon-god", let alone the statue representing
Allah!

As for the "Moon temple" at Hureidha in Hadhramaut, it was a claim
of G. Caton Thompson which Morey dutifully repeated. The name of the Hadramitic
patron deity according to the epigraphic evidence is
and it is transcribed as SYN, which Thompson transcribed as Sin.
Modern scholarship rejects this view on the basis of South Arabian orthography
and the testimony of the Natural History of Pliny
which points to a vocalization Sayīn. Furthermore, the numismatic
evidence from Hadramaut shows that Sayīn appears as an eagle, a
solar animal, and this clearly points to him as being the Sun god. Coupled to
this is the fact that none of the inscriptions say that Sayin was a Moon-god.
Morey also claimed that G. Caton Thompson discovered an "idol which may
be the Moon-god himself" and that this "was later confirmed by other
well-known archeologists". We have shown that Thompson did nothing of the
sort; as to how "well-known archeologists" can confirm something that
Thompson never claimed is a mystery to everyone. Rather Morey concocted the
evidence to fit his pre-conceived notion that Allah was a "Moon-god".

Morey's deception is also clearly highlighted by the numerous misquotes. An examination of the actual quotes suggests that none of them say what Morey is claiming they say. Certainly, none of them say that Allah was a "Moon-god". In conclusion, Morey set us up with a case which we could not lose. Instead, he has cast his own credibility into doubt by penning a shoddy piece of pseudo-scholarship. Recently, however, there are signs that some Christian missionaries, especially those tentmakers involved in field work in Muslim dominated areas have discovered that this form of untruthful argumentation is hampering their presence and is operating as a counter-balance against their missionizing efforts. Such was the seriousness of the situation, members of the missionary communities were compelled to write articles to disprove such speculative and fallacious theories, attempting to consolidate and strengthen the strategies already in place for evangelizing Muslims.

Morey's book will be remembered as one of the worst examples of published Christian
missionary polemics and will join those category of books attempting to disparage
Islam at the expense of objective cogent scholarship. In general, it will be
observed that on numerous occasions Morey has resorted to forgery, deception,
suppression of evidence and deliberate misquotation. When these fatal academic
flaws are combined with his established inability to consistently cite references
in an accurate manner, Morey's argument is left in tatters. Such are the extent
of the factual inaccuracies in his book that one would be flabbergasted if it
had been read by anyone else prior to publication.

In relation to truth and falsehood, and, in particular, the enduring nature
of these two concepts, we are bound to be reminded of a very appropriate Qur'anic
maxim:

The nature of obsession is that it leads people to desperation. In order to desperately prove that Allah was none other than a south Arabian moon god, the Christian polemicist Yoel Natan claimed:

Since the Bakhkh symbol meant "Glory be to Allah," Almaqah was probably known as Allah already in pre-Islamic times. Egerton Sykes said that Allah "seems to have been preceded by Ilmaqah [aka Almaqah] the moon-god."[142]

Now what exactly did Egerton Sykes say?

Allah. Islamic name for God. Is derived from Semitic El, and originally applied to the moon; he seems to have been preceded by Ilmaqah, the moon god.[143]

What the polemicist did here was to deceptively clip part of the quote from Sykes which suggested that the Semitic deity El he worships along with the rest of Christendom has lunar origins. As we have shown earlier, the lunar origins of the Judaeo-Christian deity is clearly in line with the "traditional" and "pioneering scholarship" of Ditlef Nielsen who established Yahweh's "moonotheism". It was also noted that the "pioneering scholarship" of Nielsen is popular among Natan and his likes; whereas modern scholarship has conclusively discarded the hypothesis forwarded by Nielsen for the origin of the Semitic religion. Given such a state of affairs, let us turn our attention to a similar kind of obsession exhibited by the Christian polemicist that deals with the assignment of lunar characteristics to names appearing on the South Arabian coins.

S2HR HLL <YNF>

Let us first begin with the epigraphic inscription S2HR HLL <YNF> on the South Arabian coins. While discussing the issue of S2HR HLL <YNF> Natan says:

On a few Katabanian and Sabean coin issues, the obverse has a male bust and the reverse has an owl with an inscription next to the owl that reads: "Shahar Hilal, Ynp!" meaning "Moon Crescent, the Exulted.".... Scholars have generally taken the view that the Sahar Hilal mentioned on Sabean coins above the owl refers to a certain Katabanian king (or kings) by that name, and that "the exulted" (YNP) is "the king's title in Sabaean".

There are a few Sahar Hilals attested in inscriptions and coins: Shahr Hilal (~370 BC), Shahr Hilal Yuhan'im (~300 BC) and Shahr Hilal Yuhagbid (~100-120 BC), but there probably were other Shahr Hilals of which no record has been found.

The fact that "Shahr Hilal the exulted" surrounds the upper part of an animal manifestation of a moon-god (the owl) suggests that the phrase "Moon Crescent, the Exulted" refers to the moon-god, or alternatively, to the King Shahr Hilal and his high god. If the legend honored the king exclusively, one would think the legend would have been found not by the owl, but on the obverse by the man's portrait. The man's portrait may represent the moon-god Almaqah as suggested by the fact that some later issues of this coin have a crescent-and-orb touching the top of the head. However, there are some issues with the owl on both sides of the coin and the phrase "Moon Crescent, the Exulted," which more strongly suggests the phrase refers to the moon-god.[144]

The gist of Natan's argument is that S2HR HLL <YNF> means "Moon Crescent, the Exulted" and this phrase refers to the moon god. To begin with, it is worthwhile noting that the epigraphic South Arabian was written as consonants. In the modern literature, the name S2HR HLL <YNF> is usually written as "ShaHaR HiLaL <YaNaF>" to facilitate the reading. However, it is not known how exactly S2HR HLL <YNF> was pronounced. Hence it is not surprising that many times scholars do not transcribe these names and leave them as consonantal skeletons. The first question to deal with is the identity of ShaHaR HiLaL? Who or what is this?

The name ShaHaR HiLaL appears in quite a few inscriptions. According to the latest chronological framework of Southern Arabia devised by Professor K. A. Kitchen using the epigraphic evidence, there were four Qatabanian rulers with this name. They are listed below.

As for <YNF>, usually expanded as YaNaF or YaNuF, it is a Sabaean monogram. It is usually translated as "exalted" and is a royal epithet.[149] Although Natan mentioned that there were rulers with the name S2HR HLL, he did not consider it to be significant enough to dwell on the matter. Instead, he is more interested in the "fact" that "the name is etymologically connected to mythology and religion ought to be considered significant".[150] This has lead him to claim that S2HR HLL <YNF> is nothing but "Moon Crescent, the Exulted", i.e., S2HR denotes "moon" and HLL means "crescent". Matters like these can easily be resolved by considering the lexicons of ancient South Arabian. Under the entry "S2HR", the Sabaic and Qatabanian lexicons say the following:

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 7: Meaning of the word "S2HR" in (a) the old South Arabian (Sabaic),[151] (b) the Qatabanian[152] and (b) Sabaic dictionaries.[153]

As one can see, the word S2HR has the primary meaning "to declare" or "to proclaim" in ancient South Arabian. It also means "new moon" or more precisely "beginning of the new month" as the appearance of the new moon "declares" the arrival of the new month in the lunar calendar.
Furthermore, the "new moon" is a phase of the moon in which none of the moon's face is visible
from the Earth. Clearly, S2HR does not mean "moon" as claimed by Natan. What about HLL?

Figure 8: Meaning of the word "HLL" in the old South Arabian (Sabaic).[154]

This lexicon of South Arabian specifies the meaning "cisterns". Clearly on these two counts Natan's zealousness in attaching lunar mythology to S2HR HLL has exposed nothing except his own ignorance in matters relating to ancient south Arabian numismatics and religion.

We are now left with the Sabaean monogram, the royal epithet <YNF> which means "exalted". Natan cleverly depicted that this monogram was used only on the coins of the Qatabanian ruler S2HR HLL. On the contrary, <YNF> is seen on numerous coins from South Arabia issued by not only by S2HR HLL,[155] but also on the coins of rulers such as ‘MDN BYN,[156]YD‘’B[157] and even in the Athenian old style imitations.[158] So, the Sabaean monogram was not exclusive to the ruler S2HR HLL, it was used for other rulers as well. The attempt to connect S2HR HLL <YNF> with "Moon Crescent, the Exulted" can now be considered to have been swept away beyond any hope.

S2QR

The case for S2QR is even more interesting. It has been almost unanimously agreed that S2QR on coins is the name of the royal palace in Shabwa. In perhaps what can be considered as one of the most important publications of Hadramitic coins in recent times in the al-Mukallā Museum in Yemen, Sedov and Aydarus say:

... [the] coins bear the word Shaqir (S2QR), the name of the royal palace at Shabwa, and can be considered the coinage of the Hadramawt kingdom.[159]

While discussing the inscription S2QR on the South Arabian coins found in Mleiha, Sedov says:

The second name on the reverse, Shaqir, is the name of the royal palace at Shabwa, capital of Hadramawt. This name occurs on practically all the Hadramawt coinage and can be considered as a marker of the Hadrami national coinage.[160]

Such views are also endorsed by others.[161] Although Natan mentions that modern writers such as Simpson have mentioned that S2QR was the name of the royal palace at Shabwa and perhaps a royal mint as well, he is more interested in etymologically connecting it "to mythology and religion". Let us now turn our attention to this connection.

According to Natan, the word S2QR can mean the following.

... bull's horn and moon crescent.[162]

Note that SKR and SHR are fairly close in spelling to the word Shhr (Shahr) meaning crescent.[163]

Above it was discussed how SKR meant bull's horn or crescent...[164]

Note that by the process of elimination, SKR seems to mean "bull's-horn crescent."[165]

In other words, according to the Christian polemicist, S2QR can mean "bull's horn", "moon crescent" or "bull's-horn crescent". A lexical dispute like this can be resolved by looking at the relevant dictionaries. Now what do the lexicons of ancient South Arabian say concerning the word S2QR?

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 9: Meaning of the word "S2QR" in (a) the old South Arabian (Sabaic),[166] (b) the Qatabanian[167] and (b) Sabaic dictionaries.[168]

According to these lexicons, the primary meaning of the word S2QR is to "complete" or "finish" the construction of a building. As seen above, the late Professor Alfred Beeston also suggested that S2QR could also mean "brightness". It is clear that S2QR is not even remotely connected to "bull's horn", "moon crescent" or "bull's-horn crescent". Not surprisingly, the polemicist's over-reliance on the nearly fifty years old scholarship of John Walker, who mistakenly equated S2QR with SYN,[169] led him to construct lunar fantasies around the word S2QR. Now that S2QR was a distinct entity in Hadramawt, what about ḤRB?

ḤRB

As far as ḤRB is concerned, what Natan passed off as "probably" a name of the Qatabanian mint,[170] is now widely regarded as the mint at Harib. The coins from this mint are classified as ḤRB royal series. Huth explains:

Coins of the ̣HRB mint - both with and without a king's name - have long been associated with Qataban,.... ̣HRB coins with king's names and two unbearded heads, the so-called ̣HRB Royal series, are so far known as having been issued by the following three Qatabanian kings of the first and second centuries AD: Waraw'l Ghaylan, Shahr Hilal and one Yad'ab Yanaf. An unpublished coin in the name of a fourth ruler, Shahr Yagul, is in the Museum at Ataq.[171]

Similarly John Walker says:

The legend in the exergue would appear to consist of two parts: HRB, the mint of Harib,....[172]

EPILOGUE

We have seen that Natan's attempts to connect the name of S2HR HLL <YNF> with South Arabian mythology and religion turned out to be fictitious when his claims were properly examined using lexicons. Had the polemicist taken the opportunity to consult the relevant dictionaries and the plethora of scholarly literature dealing with the topic, he could have easily avoided these basic errors of interpretation. As for the claim that "Bakhkh" symbol meant "Glory be to Allah", it can be said with certainty that this is as fanciful as finding sea water on the moon.

It is also an opportunity to show that a great deal of confusion also exists in the scholarly literature as a result of non-specialists poorly quoting specialists of the South Arabian religion. Taking the example of the Hadramitic deity SYN mentioned on the coins, quoting Walker, Beeston and Ryckmans, Sedov and Aydarus say that this deity is a moon god.[173] On the contrary, it was only Walker who claimed that SYN was a lunar deity[174] and both Beeston[175] and Ryckmans[176] have conclusively refuted the lunar associations of SYN!

Another form of confusion arises due to the claimed diverse symbolism of SYN on the Hadramitic coins. Sedov mentions that the eagle on the Hadramitic coins ("Type 3") is undoubtedly the animal manifestation of the Hadramitic deity SYN.[177] Furthermore, he also says that the depiction of the bull in the Hadramitic series with bull ("Type 7, 8, 9, 10") was the animal manifestation of SYN as well.[178] As for the those Hadramitic coins ("Type 3") with a male head facing right with the name SYN before the face, Sedov suggests that it might represent the human form of SYN.[179] Such symbolisms only add to confusion and often do not take into account the Greek influence on the South Arabian coinage.

[12] Y. Yadin, Hazor: The Rediscovery Of A Great Citadel
Of The Bible, 1975, op. cit., p. 44.

[13] ibid. Also see Y. Yadin, Hazor: With A
Chapter On Israelite Megiddo, 1972, The Schweich Lectures Of The British
Academy - 1970, Oxford University Press: London, p. 73 note 1; idem., "Further Light On Biblical Hazor: Results Of The Second Season", The Biblical Archaeologist, 1957, Volume 20, No. 2, p. 41; For similar views
see J. Gray, "Hazor", Vetus Testamentum, 1966, Volume 16, pp. 34-35; J. M. Sasson, "Bovine Symbolism In The Exodus Narrative", Vetus Testamentum, 1968, Volume 18, p. 381, note 4; M. Magnusson, BC: The Archaeology Of The Bible Lands,
1977, The Bodley Head and British Broadcasting Corporation, p. 84. Here is the
statue is described as "a seated deity which was originally found decapitated";
G. Cornfeld, Archaeology Of The Bible: Book By Book,
1976, Adam & Charles Black: London, p. 76. Cornfeld's description is a "statuette
of a seated god and an offering bowl are seen on the left".

[16] A. Ben-Torr, "Hazor" in E.
Stern (Ed.), The New Encyclopedia Of Archaeological
Excavations In The Holy Land, 1993, Volume 2, Simon & Schuster, p.
596; For a similar description see W. Keller, The Bible
As History In Pictures, 1964, Hodder And Stoughton, p. 128. He described
the statue as a "seated stone figure" and that "libations were
poured into the hollow between its open arms".

[19] Y. Yadin, Hazor: The Rediscovery Of A Great Citadel
Of The Bible, 1975, op. cit., pp. 43-47 for the statue at Area
C and pp. 84-85 for the statue at Area H; Also see Y. Yadin, Hazor:
With A Chapter On Israelite Megiddo, 1972, op. cit., pp. 67-74
for the statue at Area C and pp. 87-95 for the statue at Area H.

[28] The best example of it can be seen in W. Phillips, Qataban
And Sheba: Exploring Ancient Kingdoms On The Biblical Spice Routes Of Arabia,
1955, Victor Gollancz Ltd.: London. This book deals with the story of the expedition
to Qataban and Sheba and is eminently readable. Like Nielsen, Wendell Phillips
also clubbed the Arab pantheon of gods into a triad. Thus Phillips had lifted
the hypothesis of Nielsen without giving any serious critical thought and resorted
to conjectures. For example, he says [p. 69]:

The moon was the chief deity of all the early South Arabian
kingdoms - particularly fitting in that region where the soft light of the
moon brought the rest and cool winds of the night as a relief from the blinding
sun and scorching heat of day. In contrast
to most of the old religions with which we are familiar, the Moon God is male,
while the Sun God is his consort, a female. The third god of importance
is their child, the male morning star, which we know as the planet Venus.

A similar claim concerning the South Arabians worshipping a triad is repeated
in p. 204:

Like nearly all the Semitic peoples, they
worshipped the moon, the sun, and the morning star. The chief god,
the moon, was a male deity symbolized by the bull, and we found many carved
bull's heads, with drains for the blood of sacrificed animals.

For more unsubstantiated claims of Ilmaqah being the Moon god also see
p. 256 and p. 262

[29] A. Jamme, Sabaean Inscriptions From Mahram Bilqīs
(Mārib), 1962, American Foundation for the Study of Man - Volume
3, The Johns Hopkins Press: Baltimore, pp. 9-23. There are several dedicatory
inscriptions - the earliest ones are from the 6th century BCE. For example the
inscription Ja 556 says [p. 21]:

... both administrators for Hawbas and Ilumquh, have
dedicated to Ilumquh the mass of the enclosing wall from the line of this
inscription to the top of the tower and the two recesses. By Ilumquh.

[30] For the preliminary report see F. P. Albright, "The
Excavation Of The Temple Of The Moon At Mārib", Bulletin
Of The American Schools Of Oriental Research, 1952, No. 128, pp. 25-38.
A detailed study is in F. P. Albright, "Excavations
At Marib In Yemen" in R. L. Bowen, Jr., F. P. Albright (Eds.), Archaeological
Discoveries In Southern Arabia, 1958, American Foundation for the Study
of Man - Volume 2, The Johns Hopkins Press: Baltimore, pp. 215-235. For the
expedition in general see W. Phillips, Qataban And Sheba:
Exploring Ancient Kingdoms On The Biblical Spice Routes Of Arabia, 1955,
Victor Gollancz Ltd.: London.

[42] J. F. Breton (Trans. Albert LaFarge), Arabia Felix
From The Time Of The Queen Of Sheba, Eighth Century B.C. To First Century A.D.,
1998, University of Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame (IN), pp. 119-120.

[46] The excavations are described in detail in G. C. Thompson, The
Tombs And Moon Temple Of Hureidha (Hadhramaut), 1944, Reports of the
Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London No. XIII, Oxford
at the University Press.

A similar boast about G. Caton Thompson's "amazing" discovery of the temple of Moon god at Hureidha is also found in R. Morey's A Reply To Shabbir Ally's Attack On Dr. Robert Morey: An Analysis Of Shabbir Ally's False Accusation And Unscholarly Research, n.d., Faith Defenders: Orange (CA), p. 27. It was repeated again in R. A. Morey's Winning The War Against Radical Islam, 2002, Christian Scholars Press: Las Vegas (NV), Appendix, p. xxxiv.

[49] This was also pointed out by G. Caton Thompson. See G. C. Thompson, The
Tombs And Moon Temple Of Hureidha (Hadhramaut), 1944, op. cit.,
p. 19.

[58] J. Walker, "The Moon-God On Coins Of The
Hadramaut", Bulletin Of The School Of Oriental
And African Studies, 1952, Volume 14, p. 623.

[59] J. Walker, "A New Type Of South Arabian
Coinage", The Numismatic Chronicle And Journal
Of The Numismatic Society, 1937, op. cit., pp. 260-279 and Plate
XXXIII; J. Walker, "The Moon-God On Coins Of
The Hadramaut", Bulletin Of The School Of
Oriental And African Studies, 1952, op. cit., pp. 623-626.

[60] J. Walker, "A New Type Of South Arabian
Coinage", The Numismatic Chronicle And Journal
Of The Numismatic Society, 1937, op. cit., 274-275; Also see "Coins"
in St. J. Simpson (Ed.), Queen Of Sheba: Treasures From
Ancient Yemen, 2002, op. cit., p. 78. Describing the Hadramitic
coins with eagle on them, it says:

It is the well-known series with the male head facing
right (most probably the portrait of the mukarrib) the name of the
federal deity Sayīn (SYN) on the obverse, and an
eagle with open wings (undoubtedly the manifestation of Sayīn),..

[61] J. F. Breton (Trans. Albert LaFarge), Arabia Felix
From The Time Of The Queen Of Sheba, Eighth Century B.C. To First Century A.D.,
1998, op. cit., p. 122.

[66] G. C. Thompson, The Tombs And Moon Temple Of Hureidha
(Hadhramaut), 1944, op. cit., Plate LXIV for the picture and pp.
162-165 for the text. Since ours is not an official translation, we produce
the original text below.

[75] R. Cleveland, An Ancient South Arabian Necropolis:
Objects From The Second Campaign (1951) In The Timna Cemetery,
1965, American Foundation for the Study of Man - Volume 4, The Johns Hopkins
Press: Baltimore.

[76] N. Glueck, Deities And Dolphins: The Story Of
The Nabataeans, 1966, Cassell & Company Ltd.: London.

From these religious conceptions
of southern Arabia were derived, according to Nielsen, the essentials of Babylonian
religion, of Mosaic monotheism, and even of Islam. It is a thesis that is full of ingenious,
if disputable, ideas....

[104] M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11: A New Translation With Introduction And Commentary, 1991, op. cit., p. 425. For more information on bull as a pedestal on which Yahweh was enthroned and similar iconography in the Middle East see W. F. Albright, From The Stone Age To Christianity: Monotheism And The Historical Process, 1957, Second Edition, The Johns Hopkins Press: Baltimore, p. 299.

At Bethel, Jeroboam restored the bull-iconography, by tradition (preserved in polemical attacks on the Bethel cult) created by Aaron himself at Sinai, a tradition sufficiently archaic and established that it survived the handling of later Aaronid priests in the Priestly Work.

[110] C. S. Coon, "Southern Arabia, A Problem
For The Future", Papers Of The Peabody Museum
Of American Archaeology And Ethnology, 1943, Volume 20, p. 195; It was
reprinted in C. S. Coon, "Southern Arabia, A
Problem For The Future", Annual Report Of
The Board Of Regents Of The Smithsonian Institution, 1944, Publication
3776, p. 399.

[111] ibid. Coon says:

The state god of the Minaeans was Wadd, that of
Katabanians Amm, that of Hadramis Sin, and of the Sabaeans
Il Mukah. All were the moon.

[112] "Allah" in E. Sykes, Everyman's
Dictionary Of Non-Classical Mythology, 1961, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd:
London, E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc.: New York, p. 7. Not surprising, this quote was also used by Robert Morey but in a truncated form without the mention of Semitic El used in the Old Testament. See R. Morey, A Reply To Shabbir Ally's Attack On Dr. Robert Morey: An Analysis Of Shabbir Ally's False Accusation And Unscholarly Research, n.d., op. cit., p. 5; The truncated quote is again repeated twice in R. A. Morey's Winning The War Against Radical Islam, 2002, op. cit., Appendix, pp. vii and p. 17.

[120] Morey seems to think his accuracy of citation is undoubted. In his radio
show "Bob Morey Live", dated 18th December 2003, after being introduced
as "the incredible, the intelligent, the incomparable, the in your face",
the self-styled "Dr Bob" states that "If I say its there, its
there, unless somebody has removed the there ".

[142] Y. Natan, Moon-o-theism: Religion Of A War And Moon God Prophet, 2006, Volume I, Edition 1.0, Yoel Natan, p. 347. One cannot help but comment on the infelicity of expression and sheer vulgarity which characterise many parts of this book, in spite of the author's best attempt to shroud his discourse in an academic garb.

[145] K. A. Kitchen, Documentation For Ancient Arabia: Part I - Chronological Framework And Historical Sources, 1994, The World of Ancient Arabia Series, Liverpool University Press, p. 185. For a detailed discussion on Qatabanian rulers, please see pp. 69-76, pp. 183-188 and pp. 240-241. The Qatabanian chronology has been discussed by various scholars before Kitchen. For example, see W. F. Albright, "The Chronology Of Ancient South Arabia In The Light Of The First Campaign Of Excavation In Qataban", Bulletin Of The American Schools Of Oriental Research, 1950, Volume 119, pp. 5-15; A. Jamme, "A New Chronology Of The Qatabanian Kingdom", Bulletin Of The American Schools Of Oriental Research, 1950, No. 120, pp. 26-27.